Afro / American Fiction

[SparklyFairyDust]

It's an area I was to understand more fully, but actual non-fiction books are quite expensive. So I was wondering if there were any books like Beloved by Toni Morrison (good but chilling) or Of Mice and Men which I think was set in a similar era of plantation workers.

I've got Maya Angelou's classic, I would read more Toni Robinson but not sure if the others meet up to the fame of Beloved as that was her best book if it makes sense.

I go with the fact, for most authors, they like to get it factually accurate, thus reading & kind of learning at the same time.

Have you read Alice Walker's books? She wrote The Color Purple, amongst others.

I haven't no, is there a good one to start from?

Thank you for sharing.

Alice walker third life if Grange copeland, different from all her others

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Hurston is another classic that you might like.

Their Eyes Were Watching God is brilliant, and Zora Neale Hurston is really interesting. She was born to two freed slaves, and grew up in an all- black Florida town, and was part of the Harlem Renaissance, and became an anthropologist of black cultures, but ended up very poor and working as a maid in her 60s. It was Alice Walker who went looking for her unmarked grave and revived interest in her.

You should definitely readThe Colour Purple, but Possessing the Secret of Joy is my favourite -- it's about an African American woman who chooses to undergo FGM.

TEWWG is a great recommendation!
Kindred by Octavia Butler
The Book Of Night Women-Marlon James
The Kitchen House- Kathleen Grissom
These books explore life on the plantation from a mainly female narrative viewpoint.

Uncle Tom's Cabin, Gone with the Wind, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn...These offer a broader view of the era and the working of the plantation.

There is a number of fictional books that will give you an insight into life on the plantation...also recommend reading non fictional accounts (when you are able)

The Color Purple is very good.

Also I suggest:

The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead

Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (actual any of her books)

Homegoing by yaa gyasi is a recent one which is great. A family saga going down the generations from 1770s to today. One sister was sold to the Americas and the other remained in West Africa.
Roots by Alex Haley, of course.
And Americanah which shows the Afro American experience as a 21st C immigrant, what they have in common versus whats different to the descendants of the slaves.

I finished the Underground Railroad a few weeks ago and I cant remember a thing about it! That is probably my own failing though as it was enjoyable at the time.

The Invention of Wings was quite good too., from a slightly different perspective.

I read Crossing The River by Caryl Phillips when I was on holiday in Belize (it was amongst a pile of books in the reception of our accommodation) and was really gripped by it - it's about the history and effects of slavery, told through 3 different storylines at different points in history